Who Are You? The Football Manager.

Chapter 7: Dealing with Cristiano

I looked at Arianna, who was pleading me to sign the papers, then I glanced back at the man. "No." I stated.

"Excuse me?" he asked.

"If Arianna doesn't coach, then I won't play!" I told him with a determined look on my face.

"Cristiano!" I looked at Arianna. She gave me an alarmed look, "You can't do that Cris, I'll be perfectly fine at Manchester,"

"No," I told her, I looked back at the man, "we come as a packaged deal."

The man pinched he nose, muttered something about stubborn footballers and sighed, "ok, we can make her a separate contract that is tied to yours. Therefore, as long as one of you has a job in La Liga, the other will as well."

I nodded.

*END FLASHBACK*

"No," Cristiano said as he took multiple deep breaths. "That's not possible, no, no, no."

Pep sighed at him, "She is ours; she made the choice to sign the contract that was given to her."

Cristiano stopped abruptly and looked at Pep in shock, "She made the choice?"

"Well, she wasn't forced to sign the contract. She could have refused, but she signed the contract the day it was offered to her." Pep elaborated.

I was staring at the floor, but I could feel Cristiano's intense glare burning holes in me. I slowly looked up at him and almost broke down. I could see the tears threatening to spill from his eyes as he asked a simple question, "Why?" I bit my lip to prevent myself from crying. "Do you not like Madrid? Was it because of something someone said? Who is it? I'll teach them a lesson!"

"No Cris, I love Madrid and I wish I could stay but I can. I was helpless." I replied, struggling to keep my voice from cracking.

"Then why? Why did you CHOOSE to leave the team? To leave me?"

"I did it for you Cristiano, there was no other way." I admitted, finally letting the tears flow freely. "I wanted to stay but the cost of stay was too much and I couldn't do that to you!"

"What are you talking about?" He asked me, "How is any of this helping me? Do I look happy with this Arianna?"

Instead of answering him, I turned to Pep, "Can I see a copy of my contract?" I asked him. He handed me the copy he was holding; I flipped through the contract and pointed at a line at the bottom of the page.

You must comply with all set in this contract with La Liga. A broken contract will result in the loss of your job and Mr. Cristiano Ronaldo will not be able to play in La Liga in the seasons following the date the contract was broken.

He looks up from the contract and stared at me in disbelief. "We would have found some way around it." I shook my head, he was still trying to believe that I could be on his team. "We could have..we could have moved back to England and I could have joined some other team. Maybe Manchester would take me back..." Cristiano rambled on hopelessly.

I pulled him into a hug as tears started to roll down his cheeks. I could feel him shaking as he sobbed. "I'm sorry, it's all my fault. I'm the reason you had to leave. If I had been more specific about you in my contract that day, then this wouldn't happen. I promised to protect you...and now I'm failing..."

"No Cristiano, I'm not leaving you. I'm still going to live with you. You're still here with me, nothing has changed. I'm still playing football, just with a different group of people. You will still see me every day. Honestly, what could happen to me when I'm here with all these other footballers? I'm still safe. No one could have done a better job than you."